


can anybody see; is anybody waving back at me?

by SmittyJaws



Series: Ghost AU [1]
Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: (sort of), Angst, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Past Character Death, ghost au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 02:43:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21263777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmittyJaws/pseuds/SmittyJaws
Summary: The Queen boys’ flat is haunted, and the ghost in Roger’s room doesn’t seem to like him all that much.





	can anybody see; is anybody waving back at me?

**Author's Note:**

> Behold, another AU idea, in time for Spooky Season :D
> 
> Warning for mentions of death and injuries, although the fact that this is a ghost AU should have kind of indicated that already.
> 
> Credit to [sweetestsight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetestsight/pseuds/sweetestsight)'s great fic, [Secrets To Success For (After)Life With Roommates](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20937983/chapters/49778402) for getting me thinking about a ghost AU in the first place, and thanks to [mothmansupreme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothmansupreme/pseuds/mothmansupreme) for putting up with me being like “YO WHY HAVE WE NEVER TALKED ABOUT A GHOST AU IN ALL OUR DISCUSSIONS OF ALT UNIVERSES?” and rolling with it. :P

Roger sighed when he got back to his room and discovered all of his things had been flung to the ground. It looked like a windstorm had sprung up, and he wished he knew why Jay didn’t like him so much. “Oi! Jay! The hell is this?”

When he got no answer, he tried again: “Ghosty?”

A slight breeze, but no other answer. Roger rubbed a hand over his face. Fine; if she wanted to play that game, he could too. “Headless! Get out here!”

Like a flash Jay appeared, glaring in the corner, and the room temperature dropped by several degrees. A notebook on the bed flipped open, pencil scribbling madly. _(**What** did you call me?)_

Roger shivered as he picked up the notebook, but refused to back down. “Called you what you are. If you won’t answer to your name, I’ll use one that gets you to show up. Play nice with me, and I’ll play nice with you.”

_(You agreed to not make fun of that. You know how I feel about it.)_

“And you know how I feel about you mucking about with my things!” Roger gestured at the mess strewn all over the floor. “It’s not your room anymore, so get over yourself.”

Jay’s eyes glittered dangerously as she stepped through the mess to stand in front of Roger. “_Fuck you,_” she growled, voice wavering and raspy. “Do what I want. Still my room.”

“Last I checked, it stopped being yours the moment you stopped needing to sleep. Or keep things. Possession is 9/10 of the law.” Roger gave her a smug look before glaring back. “Anyway. You can’t just keep tossing everything when you’re in a mood!”

“_Can’t_ I.” There was a low rumble, and items in the room began to shake and rattle around, as if heralding the start of an earthquake. Jay had her own smirk now, not bothering to adjust her head when it rolled to the side. “Can’t stop me.”

“For fuck’s sake!” Roger ducked as a book came flying towards him, leaving a dent in the wall where his shoulder had been. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Dead.” Jay shrugged. “Bored. Angry. You’re rude.”

“You’re _just_ as rude!”

“No rules for ghosts. No manners.” Jay adjusted her head back and stuck out her tongue, mocking him as items continued to shake.

Roger sat on the floor and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, seriously. What’s your issue? You haven’t been friendly since we moved in. Blanche and Thalia said you had a harder time accepting… this,” he gestured at her half-transparent body, “but why take it out on us? We haven’t done anything wrong, and I think that’s unfair of you to keep being so impolite. Or dangerous.”

“_I’m_ unfair.” It wasn’t a question. “Life’s unfair.”

“It is,” Roger agreed. “But that’s not a reason for you to be bitchy all the time.”

The shaking items settled, but the frown didn’t leave Jay’s face. She bent down and grabbed the notebook from where it was now tented upside-down on the floor, taking a couple of minutes to scribble a note before tossing it at Roger and sitting on the bed, head in her hands. _(I’m just tired, alright? Tired of realizing more and more things I wasn’t able to do before I died. The fact that I’m basically stuck here for the most part with no one’s company but the girls and you guys. I can’t go out for longer than a couple of hours, and even then, only by hitching a ride via a personal item. I can’t be alone, and I don’t even have my own room here anymore.)_

Roger looked up at that one, glancing up at the huddled figure on the bed. “Is that the trouble? You want space?”

Jay lifted her head up and reached for the notebook, growling as her head tilted awkwardly again. “Stupid head.”

She thought for a moment, then wrote out a couple of sentences. _(I don’t know. Sometimes I do, but it’s just… lonely, too. I love Blanche and Thalia, don’t get me wrong, but it’d be nice to see more people. Besides you, that is. I don’t know how to explain it.)_

“I can take you out more if you want,” Roger offered. “You know that. Just gotta ask.”

“Can’t,” Jay whispered, shaking her head slightly and groaning again when her head rolled. “This is why.”

“You could just make yourself invisible?” Roger suggested. “No one would see you.”

“Other ghosts,” Jay clarified, grimacing as she adjusted her head again. “They go out too.”

“Ah. Yeah, that wouldn’t help.”

_(No one wants to see trauma ghosts,)_ a scrawl of the pencil made him jump for a moment. _(We unsettle them. And even if we’re invisible, some people just **know**. Y’know? They can feel the difference between some sweet granny who died in her sleep and the dumb uni kid who broke her neck falling down the stairs. So we don’t go out much.)_

“So… what _do_ you want, then? ‘Cos you can’t keep trashing my things every time you get bothered.” Roger stood and began picking up some of the debris off the floor. “Upset or not, you’ve no right to take it out on me when I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“What _I_ want?” Jay’s voice was a whisper, reedy and thin, hiking up her knees to hug them to her chest. “…dunno.”

“Nothing at _all_?”

“No. Dunno. Nothing.” Jay shook her head, covering her mouth as her voice hitched slightly on the last word. “Can’t have anything. Nothing helps.”

And now tears were falling; fat, wet drops soaking the top of her jeans (and nothing else) as she cried, and Roger found himself longing to be able to just hold her close and take all this unnecessary stress off her shoulders. Seeing her like this, she didn’t look like the malevolent spirit she often presented as, or the unsettling image of a pale, broken corpse; she looked like a scared kid. A scared kid in need of a hug.

He remembered Brian telling him it was doable, but not for long periods; maybe he could…? “Hey. Jay. Look up for me, please?”

A teary pair of brown eyes peered up, the sounds of her sobs abated for the moment as she waited to see what he wanted. “…Yeah?”

“Can— can I hold you? How does that work? Bri said he and Thalia did it.”

“Lots of energy. And focus.” Jay sniffled. “Speaking, little focus. Moving things, little focus. Appearing, more focus. Being solid? Lots.” She shook her head. “Need time to prepare. Two, three days minimum. For just 1-2 hours. So I can’t. Not now.”

“Oh.” Well, that was disappointing. “Not at all? Even for a few minutes?”

“Um. Maybe?” Jay considered the idea, wiping at her eyes. “Never tried.”

“You also said that going outside works because you’re leeching off of the energy of the person you’re with,” Roger suggested, getting up from his seated position. “Would that work here?”

“Maybe?” Jay scribbled in the notebook again. _(Using that method worries me. It drains your energy really quickly, and I don’t want to exhaust you too much.)_

“I can live with it.” Roger waved a hand dismissively before looking back at Jay, eyes softening. “You need a hug, and I want to give you one. So what if I’m tired later? It’ll be worth it.”

_(You’re sure? I don’t think you understand how tired you’ll be afterwards,)_ she flipped the notebook to face Roger.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Not like I can’t pass out here after.” Roger sat down on the bed beside Jay, grinning. “So how do we do this?”

“Focus,” Jay whispered, moving the notebook and pencil aside and concentrating. She closed her eyes, still wiping here and there at some stray tears.

Roger didn’t know what he expected; a clap of thunder, a flash of light? Instead, there was just a low hum in the air and his lightbulb flickering above him as Jay took deep breaths, stabilizing herself before reaching out a hand toward him tentatively. “You wanted this? Don’t have long.”

“Oh God, yes.” Roger surged forward, taking her hand in his and scooping her up onto his lap, reveling in the feeling of her in his arms; soft, warm… she almost felt as though she could be alive. Her head still rolled awkwardly, but Roger couldn’t care less. He didn’t know how long he had, but he planned on holding her as long as possible.

He became aware of a warm, damp sensation on the front of his shirt, and looking down, he realized Jay was actually crying on his shirt. Normally he’d be more finicky about the state of his wardrobe, but the fact that she was actually _able_ to cry on someone’s shoulder for the first time in God knows how long, end that his was the one she chose to do it on, gave him a pleasant feeling inside.

Or maybe that was the drowsiness. He became aware of a growing tiredness in his limbs the longer he held Jay (even though it had only been a few minutes), and keeping his eyes open seemed like an impossible task. For her part, Jay didn’t seem much better off; her hold on him flickering slightly and sagging onto him more heavily as her own energy drained alongside his.

She tried to weakly pull away at one point, hand going through his arms still encircling her. Roger just shook his head and pulled her closer in response, even as he could feel the need to sleep creeping up on him. Somehow he even managed to manhandle them both under the blankets, despite feeling Jay fading away bit by bit.

When he finally fell asleep two minutes later, he felt the blankets collapse further around him as Jay faded back to complete nothingness and invisibility. And yet, he knew she was still there, not just vanished off to her space up in the attic (or wherever it was that the ghosts went off to in the house to be alone)? He wasn’t sure _how_ he knew, but he knew.

Somehow, it was the most restful sleep he’d had in ages.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also @smittyjaws on Tumblr, if you want to hit up my dumpster fire of a blog!


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